My Friend Subhash Bhende

The year 2010 was a bad year. I lost two of my closest friends, PR and Subhash. Very untimely, and when they were planning to do something new.

Subhash (Bhendya) and I (Epya) came to know each other way back in 1959 in Gokhale Institute (Pune) when we were pursuing our doctorate theses. Our room in the Institute was also shared by two other Ph.D. aspirants, Akolkar (Balkya) and Sabade (Bhavdya). Since our work involved independent research, we did not come together for studies; but we spent glorious evenings at Cafe Good Luck, sipping tea and eating loads of samosas, watching girls (all of them were beautiful), laughing at Balkya's stories and giving patient hearing to Bhendya's plans of the future, including his literary exploits. With sharing of lunch boxes in the afternoons, we came to know our families also intimately. Bhendya's mother soon came to know our preferences for fish, Balkya's mother would send Gulachi Poli for all of us... The lunch was really a daily celebration of our friendship.

Glorious days were they! We parted after completing our mission in the Institute but stayed as very, very close friends. Subhash went to Goa and then settled as Professor in Mumbai, Bhavdya became the Secretary General of the Maratha Chamber, and Balkya became the Chief of Andhra Bank, .. and yet we met frequently and shared the same Good Luck dosti, even if not always at Good Luck. Come any event, and we four would be together or phoning each other. When Subhash got elected as President of the Marathi Sahitya Sammelan, we met and expressed our worry about the future of Marathi. “If these people have to stoop so low as to elect you as President, Bhendya, Marathi is doomed!”, so said Balkya. Bhavdya was genuinely happy but wanted Bhendya to touch several subjects in his Presidential speech. He was so serious that another meeting for the purpose was soon arranged by Bhendya and along with Bhavdya's 'thought provoking' ideas, I and Balkya also made several original but crazy suggestions. It was a riot!!

Subhash immortalized us in his stories. Occasionally, along with his famous character Keyoor, some other persons bearing the names of Epya, Balkya and Bhavdya also appeared in his writings. And he would telephone us to tell that we would appear in the coming story in Mohini or whatever. Balkya would then tell him that even if we were paid to read his stories, we would not do so since many of them were based on Balkya's anecdotes. But then we would read, all of them. Openly, on his face, we would criticize them, all of them. But we knew and he knew, we liked them, all of them.

This figure of 4 of us has suddenly reduced to 3. We still cannot believe it.

When we pass by Good Luck, Bhendya, we will always remember you. And we know, up there, if you are preparing any speech or writing anything, you will miss the three of us.